What's the Most Popular Camera Used on Flickr?

Before we get into what the most popular camera is, we should first say why this is significant. As you know, Flickr is no pushover of a website. This is possibly the largest photosharing site of its kind on the internet. It has over 51 million users (from novices to professionals) and 80 million unique visitors. The camera that claims the top spot as most used out of a community this large (and particular) is certain to be a class act. So can you guess what it is? No cheating! The answer may surprise you.

That's right... according to Flickr, the most popular camera used to take photos on their site isn't even designed to be a camera primarily. It is the iPhone 4. Another interesting point to note is that the competing cameras in 2nd and 3rd place are very expensive in comparison. We can probably attribute this to a few factors. The iPhone's camera is extremely impressive given that it's only a phone. It takes a 5MP image, has great features like tap to focus and has added geotagging capabilities. There are also those crazy add on features that people can customize their phones with. And thats saying nothing about the 720p HD video it captures. Taken in proper lighting, the iPhone's photos could rival those of a much larger and much more expensive DSLR at a fraction of the cost and with much easier usability. This point alone could justify the iPhone's value for those who are still wavering on purchasing one. Beyond the quality of the iPhone's camera, this graph also proves just how ubiquitous it is in the market. And there is certainly power in numbers. Despite it's massive competition rising against it from all sides, the iPhone remains the most popular smartphone and clearly the most popular choice for a cameraphone.

Looking at this second graph which focuses strictly cameraphones, the only non-Apple product featured is the HTC Evo which does have a respectable camera from what we've seen. But again, the sheer power of the iPhone 4's popularity is impressive. And there has been a lot of talk about the iPhone 5 (or 4S perhaps being announced in the upcoming Apple event) and what kind of camera improvements we can expect (8MP!?)

How do you feel about these statistics? Is this a fair assessment and proof of the iPhone's supreme performance compared to the rest of the market (as both a phone and a camera)? Or is Flickr too small (or biased) of a subject to get an accurate analysis from?